Everyone knows that the “Autobahn” is every male’s dream. A long stretch of road without any speed limit. However, for anyone dreaming of reaching a top speed, this will soon change. The government has imposed a new speed limit on the “Autobahn” making it illegal for drivers to go more than one hundred and twenty kilometres per hour or seventy-five miles per hour.

However, if one really considers the road, this is not that big a deal of a change. It will only be applied to about six miles of Autobahn stretching between Bremen and Bremerhaven. This leaves at least thirty miles of Autobahn road still to drive at top speeds.

The government has implemented this speed limit in an effort to go “green”. By reducing the speed they are hoping to cut down on the pollution levels plaguing the area. Moreover, this will also make this stretch of the “Autobahn” safer to drive.

Tags: European Union News by Lashan Clarke
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The amount of customers who own a mobile phone to access banking services from their main bank is expected to increase more than 10 times the number when it is measured in the next four years.

Consumer mobile banking services for over eight hundred million people are expected to be the norm by the year 2011.

Studies reveal that more organizations in the banking industry will provide services and products geared towards mobile usage. This include paying bills and manage a bank account.

By far, most people will use it to access banking information, and the amount of money transacted will be twice as much in previous years. However financial institutions still have a long way to go to come to an agreement on charges related to banking with a mobile phone, providing better customer service, and more security for mobile banking.

Tags: European Union News by Lashan Clarke
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The head of Eurostar is quite happy for the success of Eurostar since its move to St Pancras from Waterloo. During the initial move, the company celebrated a strategic move on their part to become based at St Pancras, London.

Data released yesterday confirmed that this was a successful move as the company posted a record number of customers using its service. Within the first 3 months, Eurostar was said by analysts to be the travel method of choice.

The amount of people traveling on the Eurostar rose by twenty-five percent after its move to St. Pancras. A spokesman for the company states that the added convenience and the increase speed of their trains has helped increase the number of customers.

Tags: European Union News by Lashan Clarke
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The European Parliament has stated that it does not feel that anyone who shares files, without profiting from it, should be consider a criminal. Their decision came as a row has erupted between Internet Service Providers and the music industry. ISPs have been told to disconnect the internet of someone found to be illegally sharing files. The disconnection will not happen until after three warnings.

However, the European Parliament stated that even though it is committed to the fight against the illegal pirating of software, they will not arrest anyone who does so without the intention of making a profit.

Tags: European Union News by Lashan Clarke
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Wal-Mart has announced that its new executive will look at the viability of opening a store within Russia. Wal-Mart hopes to expand to Russia, and any of the other European partners that this country trades with.

The new executive Stephan Fanderl has become the presiden of the emerging markets - East division for Walmart. He will have the task of looking to see if Russia will be a profitable country for Wal-Mart to base itself.

At the moment Wal-mart is based in many countries such as Brazil, China, United Kingdom, and has over three thousand stores around the world.

Tags: European Economy News, European Union News by Lashan Clarke
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Tesco mobile has released information that after testing they have discovered that their customers are ready for mobile advertising and mobile phone ads.

The Mobile Virtual Network Operator recently completed a project last May where it tested ads on its mobile network.

Tesco said they saw a growth of new visitors to approximately 300,000 people by using mobile phone ads.

Clicking on banner ads was the main campaign that they ran, and women in their mid 30’s were the highest population of visitors to visit or buy from the site.

The most useful brands bought were toiletries and cleaning supplies. According to this campaign, Tesco has discovered that at least sixty percent of their visitors are women, and at least seventy percent of them will click on the ads.

Tags: European Union News by Lashan Clarke
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There is a growing concern for the state of the Italian airline company Alitalia, as the business venture to sell the airline continues to be plagued with delays.

The last prospective buyer was Air France-KLM, but the deal fell through and Air France-KLM withdrew its offer.

The Italian airline company has been trying to find a prospective buyer for at least a month and a half, and time is running out.

In order to avoid financial ruin, at least one billion dollars must be obtained by Alitalia by the month of June.

Just as it continues to operate, the company is losing more and more money until a buyer can be found. Analysts are predicting that they are losing at least one million a day as they continue.

At the moment trading stock in the company has been put on hold after the chairman of the airline tendered his resignation.

Tags: European Union News by Lashan Clarke
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The European Commission is concerned about the amount of information that search engines store on people that use them.

Based on a report issued by Commission, it has found that at least 5-7 months of personal information is being held by search engines.

This calls into question just how secure they really are.

The European Commission has also questioned why data for anyone using search engines has been stored, and what happens to the data after it has been collected.

The Commission is calling on search engines to first seek user’s permission to collect and store data, and implement other recommendations listed in the report.

Currently data is stored from between one to two years.

Tags: European Union News by Lashan Clarke
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There is a growing concern about the amount of children working in Egypt. The European Union is considering working with countries such as Egypt where many of its workers are below the age of 16. Children as young as eight will spend long hours working for brick factories located on the outskirts of the city of Cairo.

Because of the lack of available jobs and a poor social system, many of these children are the sole or co-breadwinner for their families. They will usually have one or both parents that are unable to work because of health problems.

The European Union and the Egyptian government are trying to consider ways to prevent or protect children who are working in these harsh conditions for only a few dollars a day.

Tags: European Union News by Lashan Clarke
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The British government is expected to take a more active role in preventing youth and children from being victims of pedophiles. In their latest attempt, the government would like to ban anyone convicted of paedophila from being able to use any social networking site such as Bebo or Facebook. The government would like to enforce pedophiles give polic all the email addresses they use, and have them blocked by social networking sites. With this law, anyone convicted by police for paedophile can be given five years in prison if they use an email address not registered with law enforcement.

Tags: European Union News by Lashan Clarke
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The European leaders of Nato have announced that they will be approving the U.S.’s bid to install new missile defenses within Europe, ahead of George W. Bush’s talks with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

Nato leaders convened at at summit in Bucharest last Thursday, where they announced that they would support the plans, and even extend them to countries not initially suggested by the U.S., such as Turkey and regions of the Balkans.

George W. Bush will be politically reinforced by the European acceptance of this new defense system when he meets with Putin this weekend.

At this point last year, the alliance was divided over this issue, but with redoubled efforts by the U.S. to have a more open dialog with their fellow Nato members, and with Russia, the system has been given the go ahead after receiving revisions by European leaders of Nato.

An official from the U.S. has stated that this issue was expected to be highly divisive for Nato, however the European members of the international group have accepted the U.S.’s sincerity in this issue and their renewed efforts at working with the organization, especially its European and Russian members.

The inclusion of Russia into the scheme comes on the back of Putin making disparaging remarks regarding the U.S.’ intentions for the region, and especially towards his own country. The U.S. responded by saying that this system was designed to counter any missile or nuclear intentions from Iran and that it would not interfere with Russia.

Nato released a statement last Thursday in which they stated that they are of a similar view to the U.S. in regards to the potential threat that Iran poses to the region.

Tags: European Economy News, European Union News by Elisha Sanders
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The UK is suffering for the damage of the opening of Terminal 5 has had on its image and reputation. More specifically, the numerous problems with the Terminal’s opening has some people wondering how British Airways can possible improve the situation that has been created.

The terminal was herald to be the latest in building design, at a cost of over eight billion dollars. It took this country at least 5 years to complete it, but after the high profile opening, things at Terminal Five still are not back to normal. British Airways has had to cancel at over three hundred flights, and the “state of the art” baggage machine failed to operate, leaving a lot of people without their bags, and hundreds of volunteers needed to sort through the bags for British Airways.

Tags: European Union News by Lashan Clarke
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Belgium is looking to wind! Belgium - Brussels more specifically, is expected to use the energy created from windmills to power the city. Even the

European Commission is in support of Brussels’ new bid to use wind energy, and developing it from offshore. Wind energy has become popular over the last decade, and is seen as a cleaner way to produce energy instead of using fossil fuels. The EU energy commissioner is hoping to map out a geographical plan to build wind farms, “A maritime grid infrastructure is needed for the development of offshore wind energy. Without it, no offshore wind farms will be built,” Andris Piebalgs stated.

Tags: European Union News by Lashan Clarke
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This week it was announced that two German shipyards had been sold to Russian companies, highlighting the growing trend of many German

companies being purchased by Russia. The Norwegian Aker Yards sold their rights to a shipyard in Warnemunde and in Wismar to a Russian fund

named FLC West. Aker Yards stated they were promised that no changes will be made to the number of staff or pay rates.

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The Financial Supervisory Authority in Iceland and launched an official investigation into allegations against international hedge funds. There are currently rumors circulating of attacks being made against the Icelandic stock market by hedge funds.

Whist this is going on, one of Iceland’s leading banks, Kaupthing, is currently deliberating as to whether they will initiate legal action against one of the U.S.’ leading banks, Bear Stearns, for their part in organizing a trip to Iceland for senior hedge fund employees in January.

According to analysts, these dual moves are indicative of the growing aggravation of Iceland’s government with the ostensible attacks from international banking groups on the Icelandic stock market and currency, the krona.

Authorities are redoubling efforts to educate international investors about the economy in Iceland, using presentations and road shows as tools in their bid to counter the attacks.

The economy in Iceland has recently seen an extraordinary boom, which has resulted in a macroeconomic imbalance. This shows in the current deficit in account of 16% of GDP in 2007. Annual inflation is also showing signs of the imbalance, as it is sitting at 8.7% whilst the central bank’s target is actually 2.5%.

All of these issues are further complicating the current Icelandic economy, which is having to deal with main banks using disruptive leverage techniques which are having adverse effects on the confidence of investors. Stocks are also declining due to these factors, which is raising inflation at the same time as sending the currency lower.

In a bid to aid the current situation, the central banks last week brought in an interest rate rise of 1.25% to help alleviate some of the financial pressure. This brings the interest rate to a record high of 15%.

Regardless of the current tensions in the economy in Iceland, they are still running with a budget surplus and the government managed to reduce the deficit from 26% in 2006. When juxtaposed with other markets and banks internationally, Iceland’s banks are robust and highly capitalised.

Kaupthing is currently being advised legally on the possible misuse of the market by Bear Stearns after they arranged for a trip to Iceland last January which three Bear employees attended and four employees from hedge funds.

The dominant Icelandic bank will be have the ability to subpoena e-mails and telephone records from Bear Sterns and the hedge funds involved, if they do undertake legal action. DA Capital Europe, King Street, Merril Lynch GSRG, and Sandelman Parnters, being the four hedge funds in question.

Friday saw the central bank chief, David Oddsson, say that Iceland was the indented prey of an attack on the Icelandic economy, and that brokers were attempting to destroy the financial system of the country.

Tags: European Economy News, European Union News by Elisha Sanders
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London is visualizing how it will deal with the growing influx of people into its city. Even though it is less crowded that other cities such as Cairo or Paris, the next fifty years will be a crucial time to try and fit more people into a growing population, but with less amount of land available.

It is already in the forecast to build a large amount of commuter towns that will be strategically placed on the outskirts of the city. These dwellings will lack the width, but make up for it in height. With at least 100,000 people expected to be housed by 2016. It is the belief that one particular building should be created that provides all of these one hundred thousand residents with all the facilities they need - hospitals, schools, parks, etc.

Tags: European Union News by Lashan Clarke
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The Monaco business Wally Yachts has continued to surpise us with its daring designs. Its recent yacht to be unveiled is said to be a monster yacht known as WallyIsland. The specs for this yacht include a size of a least 325 feet. This megayacht can be used as a home, or even a moving exhibit. at one time a large yacht was considered to by around 180 feet and was for very rich owners. Since then yacht builders have been competing to design a yacht well over the 320 feet mark.

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The European Union Commission announced on Friday that they would not be pursuing a ban on Italian mozzarella after it cases were discovered of the cheese being contaminated with dioxins which cause cancer, as the Italian government has taken adequate measures to control the issue,

In a news conference, E.U. heath spokesperson, Nina Papadoulaki, stated that the commission was entirely happy with the measures undertaken by the Italian government and that they would me maintaining continuous involvement authorities in Italy to ensure the issue does not arise again. Papadoulaki stated that with reports they had received from Italy that day, there was no need for further intervention at an E.U. level.

Friday saw Italy make a recall on a batch of mozzarella which was possibly contaminated. This is part of a wide-spread health scare which has had a negative impact on one of the countries most renown culinary products.

News sources from within the country have reported that the issue has been contained and that after all recalls have been completed and testing done, the reputation of Italian mozzarella will bounce back and will again achieve its former status as the ultimate symbol of Italian gastronomy.

Gianpaolo Patta, a senior health ministry official, made a statement to the press that the reported recall of buffalo mozzarella, which came from the foreign minister whilst visiting Naples, was not entirely correct.

All milk which has been scanned on dairy farms since March 3, and those who have been found to be contaminated have had all production shut down with the farms being sequestered to court. Patta also went on to say that any milk which had been used to produce mozzarella before that date will have expired at this stage.

The health minister stated that the E.U. had ordered an extensive systematic analysis of dairy farms, and that they had requested the names of those farms which had dioxin levels above the appropriate amount. Apparently there are 20 such farms, where there was 25 recently. The Italian government is happy to oblige the E.U. on releasing the names of the farms, however will wait until testing is complete so as to be absolutely sure of the data.

France is taking no chances, and the country has banned the sales of all Italian mozzarella cheeses from the Campania region for fear of it being dioxin contaminated.

The agriculture minister from France made a statement to the effect that, as a precautionary measure only, all mozzarella made from buffalo milk will be removed from shelves and subjected to extensive tests.

Italy’s high level food and health officials released a statement on Thursday in which they instructed people to not stop buying mozzarella cheese made from buffalo milk, as the dioxin contamination scare had been overestimated and that none of the contaminated cheeses had been sold out of the country.

During a press conference, Italy’s agricultural minister, Paolo de Castro, ate some of the cheese in question to illustrate the governments stance on the safety of the product. Figures have been released which state that, in order to exceed dioxin limits set by the World Health Organisation, a person would have to eat over 7kg of buffalo mozzarella in one day.

This has not stopped Japan holding loads of Italian mozzarella in their customs facilities in two airports to await further testing, as well as South Korea blocking imports on all buffalo mozzarella from Italy, though this fact is contested by Italian officials. A civil protection official, Guido Bertolaso, stated that he believed countries like the U.S. and Australia, who produce their own mozzarella, are taking enjoyment from what he labeled a localised issue.

During his press conference, de Castro stated that the 25 dairies with extreme dioxin levels could face criminal charges, and that at this stage, the 25 dairies along with 83 farms have been sequestered by courts. de Castro believes that there is no doubt that people will be prosecuted, but that contaminated cheese hadn’t actually reached the market because of strict control methods.

Health minister Patta stated that the soil contamination from the burning of tyres and plastic could be the cause of the excessive dioxin levels.

Both investigators and environmentalists have stated that many types of unsanctioned garbage has been burnt within Campania, both by residents wishing to rid themselves of garbage yet to be collected, and by mafia groups attempting to get rid of toxic waste from other regions in Italy.

A dairy manager from Naples, known only as Giovanni as he requested his full name not be disclosed, stated that the mafia had actually infiltrated some dairies and now operated them, and that they used scare tactics and racketeering to avoid health controls. Giovanni went on to say that this dioxin scare was brought to light only a few weeks from parliamentary elections in a bid to gain political power in the region and bring the region to its knees.

Campania region is, along with the city of Naples, under administrations from the centre-left and is allied with the central government in Rome.

Tags: European Union News by Elisha Sanders
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A report surfaced today accusing the supermarket store brand Lidl of spying on its employees. Information released allege that the store uses business practices that are not favourable to its employees.

For instance, in many stores it is alleged that employees are constantly watched by Lidl hiring detectives to keep track of them while working. These detectives are alleged to also monitor employee activities during coffee breaks, or when they go to the bathroom.

The report is part of a government probe after allegations were made against Lidl. The German government is expected to finish its investigation in several weeks.

Tags: European Union News by Lashan Clarke
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In a new situation known as offsourcing, IT firm Wipro is slated to hire hundreds of new people for their offices outside of London. The company is a large employer of over 6,000 people within the European Union, and would like to open one new office within the next two years. The Indian company with its base in Reading already employs three hundred people.

“We want a centre where the general profile of the young girls and boys graduating there is of a nature where they would like to work in that area, they have family roots in that area, they come from a background which is comfortable in that area and don’t necessarily want to migrate to&the larger cities,” stated Azim Premji, Wipro’s Chairman.

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